Marketing Made Easy by Jottful

Michael Eckstein is a one-man show, delivering “artisanal, grass-fed accounting and business advice.”

Learn how Michael uses marketing (and his copywriting superpower) to build a more profitable business, not just a bigger one. He’ll reveal the system that drives his success and the missteps he made along the way — including how he gave up on LinkedIn twice before finally seeing traction.

Marketing tactics discussed in this episode include:

• Networking
• Local SEO
• Publicity/PR
• Podcast guesting
• LinkedIn
• Email newsletter

When the pandemic hit, the design agency CM2 Media lost an alarming 80% of its retainer revenue overnight. The owner, Mark Chyz, knew the business had become complacent and needed a transformative approach to business development. 

In this episode, Mark shares the tactics he employed to not only recover all that lost revenue, but to grow the agency to double its previous size.

Marketing tactics discussed in this episode include: 

• Content marketing 
• Social media
• Video marketing
• Bartering

Nikita Montgomery's "urban beauty oasis" opened a few short months before the Covid-19 pandemic forced business closures. But Niki was not deterred. She leaned on her experience in public relations and social media management to deploy an Instagram marketing strategy that now drives 90% of the salon's revenues.

In this episode, you'll learn how Niki built her online audience and drives appointment bookings.

Marketing tactics discussed in this episode include: 

• Social media (Instagram & TikTok)
• Referral program
• Content marketing 
• Paid social advertising
• Fake it 'til you make it

When Cynthia Flynn was deciding whether to start her own law firm, she joined the local Chamber of Commerce to see if she could earn "just one client." She was successful, so she joined another networking group. And then another, and another, and so on — until she was exhausted and not seeing enough value for her time commitment. 

In this episode, you'll learn the process Cynthia went through to get out of the networking game and build the sustainable growth engine that now delivers millions of dollars in annual billings.

Marketing tactics discussed in this episode include: 

• Publicity / PR
• Content marketing (blog, podcast & video)
• Paying for leads from lead-gen websites

Manuel Valencia started his marketing agency, CONNECTIVE Agency, in 2014 when he became a stay-at-home dad. Manny needed the business to be something he could do in the 90 minutes each day that his youngest daughter went down for her afternoon nap. A few years later the company had grown enough that he felt comfortable asking his risk-averse wife if she wanted to leave her high-powered corporate role to join him. 

In this episode, Manny reveals about how they achieved that growth and how his team advises other businesses seeking sales momentum.

Marketing tactics discussed in this episode include: 

• Cold calling & cold email
• Government contracting, RFPs & certified minority-owned business enterprise
• Getting customer reviews

Our guest, Aaron Hendon, took a business he readily admits is a commodity service (real estate) and turned it into a Seattle “Five Star Award” winning team for the last 10 years running.

He achieved this unlikely growth by developing his own process for making and promoting highly-targeted content. In this episode of Marketing Made Easy by Jottful, you’ll learn the disciplined approach he’s taken to marketing his partnership — and how you could emulate it in your own business.

Courtney Larvadain is the founder of Glow Social Media, a digital content and social media marketing coaching and training firm. She transitioned from working alone and charging clients by the hour for social media management to building a scalable multi-employee business.

Courtney continued to grow her business while caring full time for two children under 2.5 years old, one of whom was born during the height of COVID, at a time when 2 million mothers left the workforce.

In this episode, you’ll learn how she fueled her growth through live webinars and purposeful audience-building.

Blog posts, social posts, podcasts, webinars — there are so many content opportunities for your business! But content marketing can quickly become a time suck if you don’t have a clear objective and plan.

Hilary Kirchner, content marketer and founder at Dream Write Creative, joins the podcast to help us understand:

• What “content marketing” encompasses
• Why it could be a smart strategy for your business
• How to create content that captures your audience’s attention
• And how to do it all with a limited budget and time

YouTube is the second-largest search engine, after Google. Videos often boast the highest levels of engagement on social media platforms. Advertising on YouTube remains affordable. Can you afford to ignore the power of video?

But getting started with video can feel overwhelming. And that’s after you get past the nervousness of being on camera in the first place.

Dan Bennett — podcaster, YouTuber, creator of “1 Minute Media,” and Jottful Community member — shares how video can help grow your business and what you can do to get started cost-effectively.

• What equipment do you need?
• Can you operate it yourself?
• How will you get the video edited?
• When will you have time to write scripts?
• How do you optimize your videos for search?

Did you know that facts told as a story are 7x MORE likely to be remembered? Telling the story of your business is essential to winning clients, media coverage, and attracting employees (no one wants to work for a business with a lackluster story). And while a success story is exciting - an "overcoming all the odds story" is even better.

Public-relations pro Marybeth Bentwood knows this first hand because she's secured press coverage for entrepreneurs — just by understanding which stories the media is interested in and why. Through her 15 years of strategic communications, she's seen a good story help brands do three things: establish authority and credibility; make the brand relatable; and increase awareness. Those things can secure magazine covers, gain customers, and increase sales.

In this episode, Marybeth shares with us:

• What makes your story compelling?
• How to start seeing your product as a solution the media actually needs (vs. asking the media for a favor)
• How to understand news cycles and plan your approaches to the media strategically
• How to approach the media; where to get contacts, what to say, and how to follow up
• And what to do with media coverage once you get it!